Perhaps it’s a coincidence or perhaps it’s a synchronicity, but shortly after advocates spoke to Morgantown City Council about the possibility of “managed camps” for unsheltered people on city property, the Morgantown Riverfront Revitalization Task Force reported to council that survey results showed one of the primary “negatives” of the riverfront area was the sheer number of unhoused people around.
Perhaps the former could be a solution to the latter.
A managed camp is an approved encampment on city property for people who are unsheltered. (Someone can be “homeless” and be sleeping on friends’ couches, in a hotel or in a shelter. Someone who is “unsheltered” is living outdoors, without permanent, stable shelter.) Remember Diamond Village? It was an encampment that came very close to being a managed camp.
Diamond Village started on private property, but then moved to vacant city land. Organizations that support unhoused people provided porta potties and frequently visited the tent city to offer supplies, resources and assistance. As residents and advocates said at the time, Diamond Village was a place that felt safe and offered a sense of community.
After a few months, however, the Monongalia County Health Department issued the city a warning that it was operating an unpermitted and unsanitary campground and gave the city two weeks to clean up the site. In articles predating that ultimatum, we can see that Diamond Village residents requested a dumpster for their trash, but it is unclear if they received one. And in subsequent reporting by Ben Conley, we’ve discovered that, technically, the only city property it is illegal to camp on without a permit is park property.
As such, there’s no reason Morgantown can’t try a managed camp.
A managed camp addresses several problems that keep cropping up. The most urgent, but also the most uncertain, is the potential closure of the Bartlett House emergency shelter at Hazel’s House of Hope. Right now, there is nowhere else that has the capacity to take in all the shelter’s regulars. Therefore, it’s likely some will end up sleeping outdoors.
There’s also the fact that there is a small percentage of unhoused people who cannot or will not go to a shelter, whatever their reasons may be. These individuals either end up sleeping in doorways or alleyways downtown — which business owners and customers don’t like — or setting up camp along the river and rail-trail — which recreationists don’t like.
A managed camp would give a designated place that is safer and more stable for these individuals than constantly moving around to avoid getting in trouble. A decently large lot with porta potties to contain human waste and a dumpster for all other trash would be serviceable. A site with running water would be ideal to help with general cleanliness, though Diamond Village residents survived without it.
And like Diamond Village, it would once again create a central space where organizations can bring resources and information directly to the people who need it, instead of hoping people come to them.
We may find that a managed camp solves multiple problems with one solution, so it deserves serious consideration.
